


Team Arrow: Storm Chasers

by Dairi



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Jealous Oliver, Jealousy, Ruined laptop was involved, She spilled the coffee though, Storm Chaser AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-17 14:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5873332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dairi/pseuds/Dairi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Arrow have been chasing storms for around two years now, with the relatively new additions of Sara and Roy. Felicity, always so excellent at her work, is one of the most sought-after storm trackers. She makes extra money when hired out like that so she really doesn't mind, even if Oliver does.</p><p>This is one of those times. And she will later regret it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The chase begins

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't really know where this came from, it was just an idea I've been sitting on a while and thought it'd be awesome to try. I hope I've done it at least a little bit of justice. 
> 
> As always, I own nothing. 
> 
> This will have at least 2 chapters.

"You know he really hates it that you still team up with him." Sara pointed out from her position of being sprawled across the hotel bed, lazily kicking at the air with her right foot. "The only reason he's even allowing you to go is 'cause Roy and I'll be there too."

"Ok, firstly, Oliver doesn't have to 'allow' everything I do; and secondly," Felicity spoke up from her position in front of the mirror as she secured her hair into its typical ponytail, then grinned and held up her left hand, show casing the pretty diamond ring that sat on her ring finger. "This should remind him I've already made my choice, there's no going back now. He's stuck with me."

Sara lifted onto her elbows and shook her head, "I honestly don't know that that'd make him feel more secure, or more entilted." She said, making a face. Felicity sighed, her hand dropping as she turned to look at her friend.

"You're right. We'd better get down there before he backs Ray into a corner." Felicity grabbed her cell phone and card key, everything else was in her pack that Oliver'd already taken down to the lobby just after breakfast. Sara had kept her company as she'd finished out her morning-getting-ready routine. Sara skipped out of the room after her, making the door was shut tight as she went. 

Today they were in Oklahoma, chasing some very promising developments coming up from around the red river basin area. Felicity's normal storm chaser team consisted of Oliver, Diggle and herself, though within the past six months or more they had been expanding to include Sara and Roy. Her primary loyalties would always lie with Oliver first and foremost, however, and not just because of the relationship they were currently in. No, if not for Oliver she'd probably never have made it this far. 

When Oliver had started to take this business seriously, well first of all he'd needed an experienced driver. Which was a job that his bodyguard had somehow ended up taking. Then they'd needed someone to predict the storm paths, to read the data as accurately as possible, to have radar and maps accessible at all times. She'd been an amateur back then just like them, a petite blond girl that no one looked at twice. But when someone had bumped into her at a rest stop in No Where, Kansas, she'd accidentally spilled a good portion of her coffee all over the laptop keypad of a certain blue-eyed individual. Not to mention nearly scalded said person's fingers. The coffee in her hands had been fresh, and hot.

Too bad she didn't know who the person who'd bumped into her was, because she'd really like to gift them a box of chocolates. Or flowers, or maybe some wine. Because after she'd finished spouting her sincerest apologies and attempting to mop up the mess, she'd offered to help him recover what she could from the clearly cooked computer and transfer everything to the new one she'd buy. Or, y'know, at least go half in with, because she was seriously low on cash. When she heard only silence, she looked up to meet amused yet intelligent ice blue eyes, intently focused on her. 

He'd taken her up on the offer (paying for the new laptop himself, of course) and hadn't let her go since. Neither had she, because as it had turned out, he was looking for someone with just her expertise. He had decided to take a chance on her, and it turned out in spades for all involved. Despite Digg's intital misgivings because of the fact that she was a conplete stranger, she quickly proved her usefulness and they had become good friends in a short amount of time. The three of them made quite a good team for nearly a year, getting footage and still images of some awesome storms and even a few very wicked looking tornadoes. 

There had been that one time, in Arkansas, where she had led them down the wrong road and they'd nearly become twister fodder because her satilite readings wouldn't work right with all these trees, but thanks to Digg's awesome driving skills (there was a downed tree he'd used as a sort of ramp) they lived to tell the tale. Which they never really did, 'cause it'd been scary as heck, but anyway.

Thanks to how well known her skills with tracking and predicting storms had become, she was often sought out on-loan by other teams. She didn't stray out from her own all that often, but Ray Palmer had always been nice to her even when she'd been a no-name and just because Oliver seemed to really dislike the guy, she didn't see why she couldn't go out and chase with him for just one day. It wasn't as if they'd be alone, Roy and Sara were going too.

As the two blondes stepped off the elevator, they quickly set upon the four grown men hanging around the small sitting area the hotel's lobby boasted over. Ray and Oliver were in a silent stand-off just to the side of the walkway, glowering at one another. Diggle was standing behind Oliver, arms crossed over his massive chest, and when he saw Felicity his lips quirked up and he gave her a secret eye-roll. Roy was seated in an arm chair with his video equipment at his feet, looking half asleep.

"Ok folks," Felicity loudly clapped her hands as she approached, gaining everyone's attention. "Sorry that took a little longer than expected - it took me like 10 minutes to find my hair band, because, as it turned out, someone was sitting on it." She turned to give Sara a glare, who shrugged unapologetically. "Anyway, ready to roll!" She finished, smiling at the collected group of men.

"Good; well let's get our stuff out, then." Ray started to say, leaning over to attempt and pick up the bag at Oliver's feet. The other man actually growled lowly at him, stepping in front of the bag.

"I told you, I've got it." Oliver growled out, glaring at Ray. Who then promptly lifted his hands and slowly backed away. Felicity slipped between the two, facing Oliver, as she easily picked up her bag 'cause she was not about to let one of these silly men carry it for her. When it began to get heavy, maybe. But it had her computer stuff in it, so she wanted to make sure it was treated with the utmost respect, hence, no silly men.

"Be back soon, promise." Felicity whispered, stretching out onto her tiptoes to give him a quick peck on the lips. Oliver apparently didn't think this was enough, as his response was to wrap her in his arms and give her a much more thorough kiss. And if he kind of made sure to position them to where Ray would get a good view, well hey, whatever. 

"C'mon Roy, let's take our stuff out." Sara said, picking up her bag that was sitting next to his. She said it loudly enough to break the moment, but the couple didn't hear a word of it, clearly, wrapped up in each other as they were.

"Sounds good," Roy immediately jumped at the chance to be anywhere but here, grabbed his bag and hurried to follow Sara out. 

"Not soon enough," Oliver whispered in response to her promise of returning soon, staying within her breathing space when he finally came up for air before swooping in for one last kiss and then adding, leaning his forehead to hers, "I miss you already."

"It's just a few hours," Felicity pointed out, bringing up her free hand to lightly scratch around the stubble on his cheek. "But you should know - I'll be counting them, too." She smiled sweetly at him, swiping her thumb over his lips, before she slipped out from his arms (only because he'd let her) and then headed to the door, Ray beside her. She turned at the sliding glass doors and gave her fiancee one last smile and a little wave, then she was gone.

Oliver really wished that he and Digg didn't have some major work to do on their vechile, otherwise he so would've followed them...


	2. Twister Touchdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray kinda becomes a creeper, then the tornado happens and they need shelter, and Digg and Oliver fix the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok sorry this took a bit longer than planned...hope it was worth the wait, but I'm not entirely sure. The OCs in this chapter are entirely mine, especially the Allen Family, with the exception of Rose she actually belong to someone else. But Clint and Irene are mine.
> 
> This chapter got a little away from me at points, but eh, well I reckon I'll let y'all be the judge. Please be kind, though. ;)

"I'm hungry."

By the time they got away from the hotel and to the target area, it was nearing lunch. As the storm activity thus far had not been very promising, Felicity felt it was perfectly reasonable to take a lunch break. She quickly pulled up suggested eating places to thumb through on her phone, listening to the bickering of the two in the back seat.

"You're always hungry." Sara pointed out with a scoff, turning to face her window.

"Doesn't make it any less true." Roy shot back, turning to give Felicity his best puppy eyes. Which he really didn't need to because, in truth, she was starving too. She'd hardly eaten at breakfast (despite Oliver's insisting she eat at least one complete blueberry muffin seeing as that's what was on her plate, even if she did prefer to steal his apple slices instead) so eager was she to get out and back on the road again. 

"I'm looking, Roy, but there's not much around here." Felicity commented, thumbing through the options that had appeared on her phone's browser. Sara gave a small chuckle.

"We're in the south, here - deep in the rurals. I doubt there's gonna be much listed on that there, new fangled interweb." Sara proclaimed with a nod, doing her best impression of what she apparently considered a country bumpkin. Felicity gave her a brief eyebrow raise over her shoulder, then turned back around and shrugged.

"You never know. Plus, I can make things appear that most people wouldn't know was listed anywhere, but...I believe we're striking out here. Was worth a try, anyway." Felicity sighed down at her phone, feeling she had failed her precious technology. 

"There was a Ma & Pa diner place a few miles back, we could turn around." Ray offered, glancing at the blond in his passenger seat. Felicity blinked at him.

"It didn't come up in my searches." She explained, briefly wondering how it could stay in business without having a link somewhere online. And then, again, remembering where they were. She gave a small huff, and then shrugged, settling further down in her seat. "Sounds good, I would like to eat, too, before the weather turns." 

"Diner it is," Ray declared, making a 3-point turn on the dirt road that they had ambled down. Scouting out the area for the best overlook spots, but they'd not found any yet.

By the time they'd made it back to the diner (just a few miles, ha) it was well into lunch time and somehow it seemed as though the entire population within a 100 or so mile radius had decended upon the lowly eatery. It was standing room only, and they had to wait about 45 minutes for service and another 20 or so for the food. It was worth it, though.

"I mean, sure it isn't Big Belly, but this is good." Felicity commented after her third bite, suddenly understanding why people from all around came out this far. Ray nodded while Sara and Roy hummed in agreement, each well into devouring his or her own meal.

As they cleaned up the remnants of their food, mostly wrappers, to throw away, Felicity was bummed to look around and not see any other storm chasers. Quite often, on outings such as this and especially with eating places such as this, she would often spot another team or two that she knew. Familiar faces were always a good thing. Having someone to distract her from the slightly creepy way in which Ray was staring at her, which she was only beginning to realize, would be a very good thing. She suddenly really missed Oliver, and had brought her phone to hand to send him a quick text when she heard a throat clear from behind her. 

Looking up, she realized she was standing right in the door way, Ray patiently holding the door open, while she was completely blocking the path of the person behind her. She quickly stepped through and off to the side, turning to apologize. The person waved her off with a smile and kept going. 

"That Oliver?" Ray inquired, bringing Felicity's thoughts back to the phone in her hand. Had he sounded kinda sad just then?

"Oh, uhm, yes. I was sending him a quick text." Felicity responded, smiling brightly and turned to walk back to the car. How had she and Ray suddenly ended up alone? His hand on her arm, though, stopped her from moving further.

"Felicity...if I'm honest, there is another reason why I wanted to chase with you today." Ray said heavily, taking a deep breath. Felicity inwardly cringed because, although she had always thought Ray to be a nice guy, there was a reason why she'd only ever went out on a 'date' with him once. They were so much better as friends. More than that, she was in love with her best friend - Oliver - and there was just simply no way...no way at all she could ever look at someone else in that way. Not anymore, and if she were honest, not since the day she'd met Oliver Queen.

But she was getting ahead of herself. Ray may have something completely different to say.

"I just...we kinda missed our chance, and I'm sorry for that, but," 

Or not. Crud - he was totally going to say or do something that'd both late regret, and she was just about to yell for Sara when he went on,

"You really are a wonderful, simply awesome woman and I can tell that Oliver makes you happy, and that he seems to treat you well, so. I really am happy for you. But know if he does anything, or if you need someone to talk to, you can come to me. My door will always be open. ...well, not literally, but I mean, I'd always let you in." Pause. "Like, almost always." 

Well, that was awkward. 

Felicity had plastered a smile on her face about halfway through, that turned genuine in the end, and she did kind of have to start to wonder if a previous comment Oliver had made - which had made her glare at him at the time, but - on the possibility of her and Ray being related...may not have been so far off the mark...which was just weird, but anyway. Here, she knew, however misguided, Ray was simply trying to be sweet.

She knew he was only looking out for her best interest - she'd been introduced to him not long after Cooper had broken her trust and her heart, not to mention stealing one of her programs and selling it to one of the world's biggest weather forecasting companies. Felicity had really not been ready for much human interaction at the time, so instead of staying in the area and attending weather and technology lectures with Ray, she'd set out of her own tour of tornado alley. The tailend of which had brought her to a gas station outside of No Where, Kansas. 

Felicity still grins as she remembers that day -it'd started off so awful; she'd been driving all night and was so out of it she'd missed like, 3 other stations before finally managing to pull into the one she had on fumes alone. Then the pump had been unbearably slow, the price of the gas here higher than she was expecting so, even though her tummy was threatening to eat itself because the last thing into it had been sometime mid-yesterday, she could really only afford coffee. Which she needed, more than food.

And promptly spilled the precious beverage all over the laptop of a gorgeous blue-eyed man.

Best day of her life, really.

She was still grinning to herself as she fiddled with her engagement ring, slowly coming back to the awareness that Ray was still staring at her, expecting an answer. Seeing as how he played a part, however small, in her ending up in Kansas to meet the impossible man she'd fallen in love with, she really couldn't be too hard on the guy.

"Thank you," Felicity began slowly, a little off-kilter. "I appreciate knowing someone's looking out for me...like an older brother..." she was careful to stress this point, staring up at him with a raised brow before continuing, "but I know what I'm getting myself into and I've honestly never been happier. If I needed to talk to someone, I'd talk to either him or Diggle, but thank you for offering." Felicity said with a nod, then turned and walked back to Ray's truck.

"Well, good...'cause, y'know, I was only offering." Ray said to himself, nodding shortly before he shook his head and finally followed.

"What was that about?" Sara asked, once Felicity was back in the passenger seat. 

"Oh, just Ray being awkward. Thank goodness the weather's finally turning." Felicity added quickly, eager for this moment to be over and away. And never to be thought of again, like, ever. Felicity sent Oliver a quick text of, 'Miss you! Also yay, weather's finally getting interesting!' Complete with a happy face and a couple of kisses. He responded within a few minutes with, 'Miss you more, stay safe & hurry back' and had responded accordingly with kisses of his own. Felicity couldn't stop the smile from taking over her face, but she put the phone away as she had work to do. Her instruments were reading significant cloud rotation about three miles east of their current position. 

\---

"Texting Felicity, eh?" John Diggle slapped Oliver on the shoulder as he walked by, en route to the cooler to grab a water.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes." Oliver replied with a smile as he slipped his phone into his pocket, standing up. 

"She's the only one that can put a dopey smile like that on your face, so really, wasn't hard to tell." Diggle informed him, pointing at him with the water bottle in his hand before ripping the lid off and taking a nice long gulp. Oliver's smiled widened and he shrugged, but couldn't dent it. They were more than half-way into the repairs that they'd planned for the car, plus a few extras that weren't needed but would make their travels nicer. After another hour, Oliver took a pause to grab a drink of his own and listen for a moment to the radio. Something had caught his ear, but he wasn't sure what...

"...again, for those of you just tuning in, there are reports of a strong tornado on the ground right now. If you live in these areas, please get to a shelter immediately..."

"Sounds like they've got a live one." Digg commented, poking out from under the vechile and waggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah," Oliver offered a half smile, unable to shake the feeling that something was not right. He dug his phone back out to send Felicity another text, just to put his mind at ease.

'Hey, heard there was a touch down right in your target area - on point, as always. Just, let me know you're ok?'

He wasn't used to not being at her side in these situations, and it was making him extremely nervous. He knew they were all seasoned storm chasers, but it did nothing to ease the worry in his gut. And as each passing moment went by with no response from his girl, his fiancee, the love of his life, his worry began to grow and grow.

\---

It was a difficult thing to spilt your attention between the radar map with the GPS overlay and what was actually going on outside your window, but Felicity did it beautifully. When it came to anything with computers and multi-tasking, she excelled. It was when she did her best work, if she did say so herself.

Even she, however, could not predict when the storm would suddenly go rogue and would decide to take a turn that it gave completely no previous indication of.

"You getting this, Roy?" She called over her shoulder, glancing over at the young man who had his camera hanging out the window. She'd led them onto a road that ran parallel to the line she believed the brunt of this storm would be taking, all still a safe distance away of course. Roy was capturing the birth of a tornado with his handheld camera - they'd reached just the right area at just the right time, and emotions were running quite high. Even Sara was grinning like a fool and snapping awesome photos every chance she got. The first spot of ration they'd had about an hour ago had fizzled out, but then just a bit to the north, this baby had sprung up right before their eyes.

"What's it look like?" Roy grumbled over the sound of the wind, as ever playing the disagreeable, grumbly teenage boy. By now, and especially after having seen him several times in Thea's presence, Felicity knew better than to believe the facade. The sudden jerking of the truck to the right knocked the blond back into the here-and-now.

"Eyes on the road, Palmer!" Felicity yelled at him, slapping his arm as he tried to get a good view of the tornado. She didn't blame him for wanting to look, but there was something kind of more important for him to be doing, like, driving! Making sure they didn't get stuck, didn't get too close, that sort of thing.

Which, not even five minutes later, was for naught.

It would never be ascertained as to how it happened - wether Ray had been looking to the left again at the storm, or perhaps it was because of a sudden gust of wind. In either case, the truck suddenly veered off to the right, and there was no mistaking the drop that right tire made. Ray tried to throw it in reverse, but it was no use. They were stuck.

"Ray! Oh, my poor babbies, what's the dreadful man done to you?" Felicity crooned over her radar equipment, as something in the bump seems to have unsettled them and the whole system seems to have crashed. When she realized the whole thing had gone dark, she started cursing under her breath and quickly messing about with it to get something back up and running.

"Uh, guys..." Roy began, the tremor in his voice catching Sara's attention, but both Felicity and Ray were still to absorbed in electronics. 

"Something must've come loose." Felicity grumbled, diving to the floor boards.

"Guys. That cloud...doesn't it look like it's headed this way?" Roy asked, eyes still on the storm and not really paying attentiin to who was listening. Sara threw her upper body forward and pressed herself in right next to Roy in order to see out the window, too. She gasped. 

"He's right. Yo, front seat! Forget the computers, we gotta get out of here!" Sara called, smacking her hands to the back of their seats to get their attention. Felicity finally looked up, then blinked owlishly as she looked out the window. Then her eyes widened.

"Crap." She breathed, freezing up.

"I saw a sign for a community that shouldn't be too far up ahead - there should be shelter somewhere close by! C'mon, we need to hurry!" Ray informed them, jumping out of the vechile, then turning back to grab Felicity when she wasn't moving. He picked her up and hauled her out his door, not letting her pause to grab a single thing. Then he grabbed her arm and started to run.

"Wait, won't we be safer if we stayed in the car and just got down low?!" Roy asked, holding on to his camera as if it went a life line. Probably still rolling, too, thouh it wasn't pointed toward the storm anymore.

"In some cases, yes; but when we can find better shelter, no!" Ray yelled over the rising wind, his hand still clamped around Felicity's wrist as he took off running, effectively dragging her with. Roy and Sara were right behind them. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the sky had grown so dark it was getting a little hard to see. Still, up ahead was clearly a structure, an old gas station from the looks of it. And none too soon, debre was starting to fly through the air around them. Without a moments hesitation, the storm chaser team bounded inside.

"Ok, folks." Ray announced upon entry, finally letting go of Felicity's wrist as he looked around the small building. There was a young woman behind the counter, then over to the right where a few eating booths were set up sat a man in a black cowboy hat, a little girl no older than five sitting in his lap. "Not to alarm anyone - because I'm sure you're very aware of the storm outside - but, do you have any place to shelter here? Like from a tornado, like right now."

"What?" The woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow at him, clearly unmoved. The man in the hat, though, stood up with the child in his arms and looked out the window.

"What he means to say is, we all need to take shelter right now, because yes, a tornado is right behind us." Sara clarified, to the wide-eyed female empolyee. 

"She's right!" The man with the hat exclaimed, a note of panic in his voice as he turned to the woman, his hazel eyes skimming each of the four visitors. "The walk-in cooler is our best bet, Irene! Show them," he said, keeping his eyes on the window as he started to step backwards. Sara had her hand of Felicity's arm, leading her further into the building, followed by Roy and then Ray. The woman quickly led them to the cooler and ushered them inside, the man with the child being last in. 

"What about Rose, and the boys?" The woman, Irene, asked as the man set the child down to secure the door the best he could. Felicity couldn't help but think she was adorable, dark hair and big, blue eyes, and completely wrapped around her father's leg. 

"Rose and Daniel took them to a show in the city, they should be safe. I hope." He responded as he moved to slide down the wall, taking the child in his arms again.

"The town should miss most of this, it only really started to get bad..in this area." Felicity attempted to reassure the man, pausing in her speech as the lights flickered and the building seemed to shake with the force of the wind. The child made a low sound in her throat and clung tighter to her father.

"Oh, uhm, I guess we never made introductions...and now is as good a time as any," Ray said with a little laugh. "I'll start - my name is Ray Palmer, and the four of us are storm chasers."

"Storm chasers? Oh, I bet y'all have seen some cool stuff." The young woman said with a grin, looking at Felicity. 

"Yeah, we've seen some beauties. I'm Felicity Smoak, and my fiancée, Oliver, is in town too." Felicity replied, glancing at the man with the hat. He nodded in response.

"Clint Allen, this m' daughter Maria, and that's Irene Parker, my sister." Clint introduced them, nodding to Irene who smiled at them. "My wife, Rose, and our three sons are in town with Rose's brother." 

"I'm sure they'll all be all right. I'm Sara Lance, and that's...Roy Harper." Sara introduced them, starting to hook her thumb in Roy's direction who grunted in acknowledgement, when the lights went dark. Then there was the noise of glass breaking, a child's scream, and lots and lots of wind. The rush of the wind drowned everything else out, until there was silence.

\---

"She's not responding, Digg." Oliver voiced his concern, glancing from his friend to his phone and back. Diggle sighed and picked up a rag to wipe his hands.

"C'mon, man, we're almost done here, then we can go look for them." Diggle assured him, to also hopefully get him to work faster. It did the trick, and not even a half hour later, they were on the road. It was bright and sunny here in town, but he could see the dark clouds ahead. The further they got down the road, the more evidence there was of storms having come through. Then, evetually, the clear path of a twister.

The debre on the road became too much, so they ditched the car and continued on foot. There were trees down, and parts of roofs and siding and all manner of boards strung across the road and, well, everywhere. It was some of the worst damage they'd ever seen. Thankfully it hadn't hit a more populated area, but still, where it had hit was bad enough.

"Oliver," Diggle called his friend over, nodding to a vechile just up ahead. It had landed on its roof, a truck it looked like...a red one. 

Oliver's heart stopped. It was Palmer's truck.

He raced forward the slid to a stop before it, wrenching the door open to peer inside, leaning forwards. Then he breathed a sigh.

"No one's in it - they must've got out," he said, standing. Or he hoped they did, he would not even imagine a scenario where they all got sucked out. The backdoor on the other side had been open...

Oliver shook his head, no use in going there. Still, he took a quick glance around and was gratified to see no bodies laying around, at least. Oliver and Diggle walked on.

In the rubble on the other side of the street, or what he was fairly certain was the other side, a family was just coming up out of what he assumed was their storm shelter. They looked shaken, but whole and alive. He prayed that Felicity and their friends had made it to shelter in time, too. Just as theybwere about to pass the standing remnants of a house on their right, a voice calling for help made him freeze. It was a man's voice, an older gent from the sounds of it, and definitely not Felicity. Even so, he could not ignore it.

His heart cried out for one thing, but his head and sense of decency insisted on another. As one, he and Diggle turned toward the cry for help. It took them a moment to pick their way through the debre, but soon enough they were standing in what was left of a bathroom, a man in his twilight years looking at them with tears in his cloudy eyes.

"Please - my grandson and I took shelter in the bathroom, he was in the tub, but I - I can't find him. He won't answer me. Please." He beseeched the men, raising his hand toward Oliver. To Oliver's eyes it looked as if most of one wall had collapsed over where the tub likely was. Now if the tub was deep enough, there may have been an air pocket or something between the child and where the wall now lay, or so he hoped. One way to find out.

"We'll find him," Diggle assured, and then the two of them quickly got to work in easing parts of the wall off the tub. Within a few minutes, the child became visible, but his eyes were closed. Diggle quickly dove forward to take his pulse, Oliver standing rigidly at his side.

"Pulse is good and strong, your grandson is alive." Diggle said over his shoulder to the man, causing both the man and Oliver to let out a breath of relief. As they started to clear him off more, the boy awoke. He was well enough to sit up right away.

"Are you all right, Isaiah?" The old man questioned, and when it appeared the two of them would be ok, Oliver and Diggle slipped away. 

Back on the debre littered roadway, Oliver was almost run down by a short redheaded woman, hair up in a bun, who was shouting out some names as she ran.

"Maria, Clint! Irene!" She continued to shout, "If-if my baby is hurt, Mr. Allen, soon you will be too!" There was a distinct lit to her voice, Oliver realized, the woman was British. Perhaps it was this, because she reminded him of Walter, but for some reason he suddenly felt as though he should follow her.

"Never fear, Mrs. Allen," a man with dark hair and hazel eyes stepped into the road, followed by another young woman with dark hair. "I kept our baby safe, for your inspection." He heard the man speak again, his accent distinctly southern-American, and only then did Oliver realize the bundle in the man's arms was actually a child. He was drawn to the scene forna moment, a father and mother cooing over their child and making sure it was safe, when he felt eyes on him. The other young woman was walking towards him.

"Hello there!" She said cheerily, smiling in a way that oddly reminded him of Thea, "If I had to guess, I would say...your name is Oliver." She declared, startling him. The couple with the child looked back at her, Oliver and Diggle, too.

"How do you..." Oliver couldn't complete his sentence, his confused expression speaking volumes.

"I know because I saw the same look on his face, before he knew she was safe." The girl proclaimed, pointing between the man and woman holding the child, and for some weird reason recognition suddenly dawned on the man.

"Felicity took shelter with us," she began to explain, which caused Oliver's heart to skip a beat - she had made it to safety! But then wait, where was she now? He had to calm himself in order to focus on the woman's next words. "Some of the walls caved in and there was glass every where, but other than maybe a couple scrapes, everyone made it out ok. See for yourself." She waved a hand behind him right as he heard,

"Oliver?" It was Felicity. His girl, the one who wore his ring, the love of his life...he whipped around and after sparing a moment to drink her in and prove to himself she really was ok, he quickly wrapped her up in a tight embrace. She brought her arms up to pull him in closer to herself, burying her face in his chest. The both of them took a moment, to just breathe, inhaling one another’s scents and just relishing the fact that both hearts were still beating, and finding they beat, as they always would, as one.


End file.
